Thursday, March 24, 2016

Was Syria Cooperating Militarily With Turkey Against The PKK? I Would Say YES

Stumbled across this article, quite by chance- from Jamestown FoundationWritten in 2010-Before the NATO destabilization of both nations began in earnest.And this is an anniversary post of sorts, also, as you'll find out at the end!

Let's have a look back, keeping in mind all we know from then to present time:

Recent media reports suggest that a new phase of Syrian-Turkish
military cooperation has begun against Kurdish militants of the Parti
Karkerani Kurdistan (PKK - Kurdistan Workers Party) in Syria. However, a
closer examination of the rapprochement between Damascus and Ankara and
their respective policies on Kurdish nationalism reveals accounts of
greater military cooperation may be premature.

The author of this piece (Wladimir van Wilgenburg) suggest accounts of greater military cooperation may be premature- And yet, I don't think so. Not from reading below.

In the past, Syria
has supported the PKK against Turkey and allowed the PKK to recruit
Syrian Kurds to fight against Turkey. [1] However, this changed after
Syria decided to force PKK leader Abdullah Öcalan out of the country in
1998, when Turkey threatened to invade Syria. After 1998, Syria started
to crack down on remaining PKK networks and forged better ties with
Turkey. On Öcalan’s orders, most PKK rebels moved to the Qandil
Mountains of northern Iraq.

In 1998 Syria and Turkey began to forge better ties and crack down on PKK networks.By time this Jamestown piece was written a whole lot of crackin' down would have taken place.I wonder if this concerned certain parties? Israel. NATO. US.

The PKK created the ethnic-Kurdish
Partiya Yekiti ya Demokratîk (PYD - Party of Democratic Union) in Syria
in September 2003.This party was targeted by the Syrian state, as were
other Kurdish political parties in Syria. Hundreds of its members were
arrested and PYD meetings were repressed by Syrian security forces. Some
PYD supporters were killed during PYD-organized Kurdish New Year
celebrations in the town of al-Raqqa near Aleppo in March 2010. [2]
Despite this, Öcalan, the currently imprisoned PKK leader, remains
positive about Syria, suggesting “Syria will not take part in the
annihilation concept of the Kurds,” in a statement published by a
pro-PKK news agency (Ajansa Nuceyan a Firate [ANF], June 18).

Readers here are or should be very well aware that PYD and PKK are one in the same. And considering the fact that PKK/PYD is a terrorist outfit, I can understand Syria, as well as Turkey, reigning them in

Syria
maintains good ties with Turkey out of concern over Kurdish
nationalism, perceived as a threat in both countries.Syria especially
fears that the new Kurdish autonomous region in Iraq could affect its
own Syrian Kurds. [3] Unrest in the north-eastern Syrian city of
al-Qamishli in 2004 convinced Damascus to take harsher measures against
Kurdish nationalists. Kurds are the largest ethnic minority in Syria,
with their community of 3 million forming 16% of the population. The
Syrian government is highly critical of federalism in Iraq, and prefers a
strong central Iraqi government. Unlike Turkey and Iran, Syria does not
have a consulate in the Kurdistan region of northern Iraq.

So when the US birthed the Kurdish autonomous zone in Iraq in 03, they knew very well that this would destabilize Iraq, Syria, Turkey and Iran. Talk about killing many birds with one stone?

Ties
between the two nations have also grown due to the increasingly
assertive foreign policy of Turkey’s ruling Adalet ve Kalkinma Partisi
(AKP - Justice and Development Party). The Turkish-Syrian rapprochement
began before the Islamist AKP came to power in 2002. Previously in 1999,
Syria had signed the Adana Treaty on security cooperation with Turkey.
[4] The seven years of rapprochement under the AKP have brought about a
significant strengthening of Syrian-Turkish ties. [5] This has resulted
in visa-free travel between Syria and Turkey and joint cabinet-level
meetings. These good relations have created positive changes for the
Kurds in Syria, since Kurds in both countries no longer need visas for
cross-border visits. [6]

Ties between Syria and Turkey had been growing since 2002 (at least until the time of this article in 2010) In 1999 Syria and Turkey sign a security cooperation agreement. I can think of several parties that would not have like this at all. Israel. US. That cooperation makes a lie of the whole Sunni/Shia split. Interesting

Last summer media reports suggested
there was new Syrian-Turkish security cooperation against the PKK. (2009)
According to the state-run Anatolian News Agency (ANA, a.k.a. Anadolu
Ajansi), 400 PKK members were arrested in the Syrian cities of Aleppo,
Kamishli, Afrin, al-Hasaka and Ar-Raqqa and 11 PKK fighters were killed
in joint Turkish-Syrian operations at the end of June 2010 (ANA, July
1). In addition, sanctions were taken against Kurdish families
supporting the PKK. The New York Times described this as a sign of
growing Syrian cooperation with Turkey (July 1). There were also claims
that Israeli-made Heron drones from Turkey were used against the PKK in
Syria (Gazete Vatan, July 23). At the same time, Turkish media talked
about clashes between the PKK and Shi’a militants in Lebanon (Hürriyet,
July 13). But Turkish security analyst Emrullah Uslu thinks it is
unlikely that Herons would be used in Syria. [7] The PKK has no armed
presence in Syria or Lebanon.

Perhaps the Israeli drones were not used, but, I can't discount out of hand the clashes between the PKK and militants in Lebanon

The PKK’s news agency described
accounts of both incidents as “lies” by the Turkish state (ANF, July
17). PKK leader Abdullah Öcalan remarked he does not believe Syria would
kill Kurds (ANF, July 18). PKK spokesperson Roj Welat told Jamestown
that Turkey is providing misinformation to the public in order to
convince Syria to work with Turkey against the PKK. [8] He stated,
“There were no such clashes between Syrian military forces and the PKK.
Of course they are arresting Kurds and oppressing Kurdish people in
Syria, but there have been no such clashes as the Turkish media claims.”

So Syria was arresting PKK and oppressing PKK but "there were no clashes"? Oh, I think there were clashes. I don't believe the PKK spokesperson at all. So these terrorist, smugglers criminals were just taking their oppression lying down? Only a fool would believe that nonsense. If it don't make sense. It can't be true.

PYD
member Shirwan Hassan confirmed a total of 400 PYD supporters have been
arrested in Syria in the last three years but not just in the last
summer, as reported. [9] During the last Newroz event in Ar-Raqqa,
several PYD members were arrested. Other Kurdish politicians like Sherko
Abbas and Kurdistan Democratic Party Syria (KDP-S) secretary Ebu Sabir
say not only PKK members were arrested in the recent years, confirming
there are frequent arrests of Kurdish political activists in Syria. [10]

Syrian President Assad indicated that he did not know anything
about the alleged military operations, but said that security meetings
with Turkey are not new and happen on a regular basis. The Syrian leader
said that his country could give amnesty to “1,500 Syrian-origin
terrorists within the PKK” to contribute to a solution of the Kurdish
issue in Turkey (Today’s Zaman, July 17). Assad has been clear that
military means alone will not solve the Kurdish issue, stating, “We
embrace anyone who lays down arms because our goal is not to take
revenge but to end terrorism. We cannot end terrorism by hunting
terrorists. Because every terrorist killed is replaced by another one”
(Today’s Zaman, July September 17).

Assad the politician. But astute.

It seems as though reports
of a wave of arrests of 400 people and military operations against the
PKK have been exaggerated. Syria is neither obtaining military support
from the Turkish army against the PKK nor is Turkey pressuring Syria to
do more against the PKK, although political and security cooperation
continues to expand. It is likely that in the future Syrian-Turkish
cooperation will continue, especially after the recent rise in tension
between Turkey and Israel. Syria and Turkey will need such cooperation
to curtail the threat posed by Kurdish nationalism, which has typically
taken advantage of cross-border refuges in Syria and Iraq when pressured
by the Turkish military.

How does this author draw the conclusion that reports have been exaggerated? I can't make that conclusion myself especially when he goes on to say in 2010 'It is likely that in the future Syrian-Turkish
cooperation will continue" And "Syria and Turkey will need such cooperation
to curtail the threat posed by Kurdish nationalism, which has typically
taken advantage of cross-border refuges in Syria and Iraq when pressured
by the Turkish military"And in March of 2011 the destabilization began.

11 comments:

Five years ago today I started covering the destabilization of Syria by NATO forces. I've learned lots along the way and it seemed a good time to step back and look at this information with a wiser mind then I had 5 years ago.

Think about this?

War is .....

...THE CONTINUATION OF STATE POLICY, BY OTHER MEANS

.......A POLITICAL ACTIVITY IN WHICH VIOLENCE IS USED TO BEND THE WILL OF YOUR ENEMY TO THAT OF YOUR OWN

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This blog is a place to not only post information that will never see the light of day on the mainstream media, but, also to present alternative perspectives to main stream media information, that most often presents no background, no context, and never questions the information presented.
The name I chose, Penny for your thoughts, is an invitation to readers to share their relevant thoughts on the varying information.